Posts tagged "team"

Job Descriptions

“It is all one to me if a man comes from Sing Sing Prison or Harvard. We hire a man, not his history.” Malcom S Forbes

Once you have developed a framework for your organization, you are now equipped with the knowledge needed to develop a simple job description to help attract the talent that you need in a more focused manner. Job descriptions are often overlooked or not given enough attention at younger organizations. Since growth is organic and structure is often not in place  this is often disregarded. Say you are looking for an associate web developer to help support your core team of developers with some flash developmental work. In your mind you are perfectly clear about the sort of resource you require. However, later on if you tell the individual to help you out in your php developmental cycles and other administrative functions there may be unpleasantness. 

First we need to map out the main areas of a standard job description. 

Position: The title of the opening at your organization. Keep the title simple and avoid fancy titles which only cause confusion about what the role actually entails.

Responsibilities: This is where you outline in detail all the tasks which the resource will be responsible for. At startups, this should include a broad spectrum if your team is small because we all have to wear multiple hats at the beginning. If you are already at an established stage and are taking on a specialist then you make sure you have covered all the areas of responsibilities. 

Division: You will need to outline which department the resource will be under and the departments main role and functionalities. This will help put the responsibilities into context and bring clarity to the actual job requirement. You can also include details covering who the person will be reporting to and working with.

Education and Experience: Depending on the level of candidate you are looking for, you can fill this category likewise. Any relevant industry experience that may be required should be highlighted here.

Workplace environment: You can refer to the framework list to gather details to fill in this section about the working environment of your organization.

Personal Attributes: If you require any particular attributes which you think will be critical to succeeding at the job then this is the section where they should be highlighted.

These points will help you create a short job description which will help convey your message effectively to potential candidates. It will also help you benchmark performance against responsibilities assigned for the future , making it a critical document in your hiring and talent management process.

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Frameworks

“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.” David Oglivy

Your startup is growing fast and you need more helping hands to take you to the next level. Congratulations on reaching this far on your journey as an entrepreneur, it is going to get a lot more exciting from here on . Hiring is perhaps one of the most critical as well as the most difficult functions that any company has to undertake. There is a reason why Jack Welch has stated that Head of HR should be at the same level as the CFO at a company. What a lot of startups end up doing when things are in a tizzy with growth is to hire the next guy who looks good on paper. We did the same in a couple of ventures earlier on  and suffered as a result. This is not a process you want to rush, each hiring decision you make is going to have a impact on your business and the smaller your organization the larger the impact. 

The entire objective of hiring is to find a resource who possesses the skill sets, abilities and personality traits which match the opening position. To identify skills sets and abilities is relatively straight forward. If you are looking for a web developer you will require proficiency in certain programming languages and cognitive abilities which can be gauged through the applicants resume, portfolio and ability tests. The tricky part comes when you are looking for specific personality traits. Not every web developer will be suited for your team. If you are a highly structured and analytical team and you find a brilliant developer who however has a strong preference for unstructured working environments you are most definitely going to have a problem very soon.

When I am consulting clients on hiring these are three factors that I ask them to identify prior to the development of a job description ;

1. Work place preferences: Some workplaces thrive in unstructured environments while others require a routine to function in. Other places value team work more than solo operations. You need to correctly identify what preferences have been put into place by your current team. This will allow you to define and clearly communicate to the applicants the environment they are going to be working in.

2. Intellectual capabilities: This is where you identify what sort of intellectual capabilities you are looking for in the designated role. Will the resource have to be involved in creative development work or heavy research position or in a position where he/she needs to be making many decisions. Each will require you to keep a look out for particular characteristics.

3. Personal Attributes: If your position requires the resource to motivate and energize teams then you will require someone who has high levels of energy and the capability to energize. They will require them to have immense passion and the ability to infuse it into the organization. If your position is research heavy and it doesn’t require the individual to be in such a position this attribute will not be necessary. Other attributes such as personal drivers are very important. Some individuals are purely driven by monetary compensation while others require less and more personal satisfaction. 

Formalize your list into a framework and you will be clearer as to what sort of individual you need to succeed at your organization.

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Hiring your first employee

“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.” Larry Bossidy

The day your company is ready to hire its very first employee is an exciting one for any startup company. It is a sign of growth and a sign that things are moving in the right direction. Talking about hiring may be fun but when startup companies actually get down to doing it, thats when they realize that it is much harder than it appears to be. Over the years I have been through this cycle many times and am constantly refining the process, to get it right. 

What starts out seemingly as a simple cycle of sourcing, identification, interviewing and hiring requires a lot more groundwork to get the process right. In my earlier ventures our recruitment methodology was very sporadic and unstructured. This resulted in the hiring process taking much longer , it was more expensive, we didn’t get the right people and through it all lost business opportunities while searching. Recently, in one of my companies we have initialised the hiring process which has been a much more efficient and cost effective approach. I will share it with you this week.

Startups need to realize that hiring and building their team is going to be the most critical exercise to ensure the future success of the company. If you hire and work with people who do not have the passion, spirit and ‘need to win’ approach, your chances of succeeding are greatly diminished. By hiring the wrong people you slow down the company, decrease morale, incur heavy tangible and intangible costs. You must be cautious that you limit the entry of such people to your core team. During the course of the week I will touch on the 5 basic steps we take to identify and recruit employees. I hope it will be of some benefit to all the readers who are thinking about hiring in the near future.

 

Is it all about the money?

You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves. Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning doorway to life. This is not an easy struggle. Indeed, it may be the most difficult task in the world, for opening Daisaku Ikeda

I hear it all the time….”I will start up my own company when I have enough money” or “I can’t start a new business because I don’t have the funds”. I used to think along these lines once upon a time as well. The reasons why some think this way are purely psychological. We set up sub conscious barriers which inhibit us to go into unchartered territory. We fear that we may fail or that we wont have the confidence that is needed. Since nothing can really prepare anyone for this deep dive I just ask the question “Do you believe that your product/service has the potential to become something huge?”. The answer to this question helps you break down any internal barriers you may have. It will strengthen your resolve and make you think deeper about what you are actually wanting  to achieve. I sincerely believe that money should not be an hurdle when you believe that you have something unique to offer the world coupled with the confidence you can deliver it .

I have been part of and have created quite a few companies in the last couple of years. I don’t recall a time when money was the primary hindrance in wanting to execute what we had in mind. Don’t get me wrong, money is a great thing to have while running a business, its just over reliance on it which causes a blur. Over the next week I am going to be talking about some of ways that you can look into raising funds for your startup. Pre-requisites would be, the belief that you have a potentially value adding service/product, have part of your team in place and a burning passion to succeed  to bring about positive change. Without these factors I am certain that even if you raise capital, chances of success are reduced.

The fact of the matter is that when you want change in your life or you do not want to go down the the beaten path you have to want it bad enough. Stuff like finding the right team and the right investment partner become much simpler feats. I had mentioned this before, when you are looking for success it has mysterious way of creating pathways for you to find it. Letting the world tell you that it is too difficult is just its way of testing your resolve. If you truly believe that you have what it takes to make it,  I am very sure that you will have no problem crossing this hurdle.

What do you see?

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. Robert McCloskey

How do you process all the information around you? Before going further think of what your answer to that question is. If you are not too sure about what the question is referring to, think about what you see in this picture ….


Originally uploaded by artissoft

This picture appeals to me . The most striking thing I think of when I look at this picture is, this cannot be a very safe neighborhood primarily because of the graffiti on the shop fronts. The atmosphere is also very eerie, I can imagine pin drop silence with the wind blowing. All these thoughts originate from past experiences or feelings. This is a more intuitive approach at looking at the picture. People with intuitive personality types usually infer and perceive a lot of things which may not be clearly apparent or deduced. On the other hand another person could look at the picture and say that the shop has German writing on its front or that there is a plastic bag which appears to be totally out of place. Or that there is not enough lighting in the adjacent street and other minor details which I may have been completely oblivious to as I was not paying attention to them. These are personality traits of people who rely heavily on their sensing capabilities.

Todays personality scale will explain how we process information. On one hand we have the sensing people who focus on details. They use their 5 senses to gather information. They prefer to trust concrete facts which are based on conclusive studies. Having a preference for realism they will accept new concepts which have some actual practical application. Information is processed the most naturally when it is provided step by step. This preference relates very much with the present.

On the other hand we have the intuitive people who focus on their sixth sense which is “gut feeling”. They are constantly reading between the lines and doing their best to decipher what is happening in the background. Being very imaginative individuals, new ideas are constantly floating in their heads. When explaining these ideas they tend to use a lot of figurative gestures and their thought processes are constantly jumping from one area to the next. They associate very must with the future.

Given this information you now have have a relative gauge as to which side of the scale you have a preference towards. Knowing this will be extremely helpful for you as it will allow you to use your preferred processing mode when you are involved in critical tasks. If you are an intuitive team member you can capitalize on your strength by providing the team with creative solutions on how to solve traditional problems. Your key insight into situations will allow you to look into the future and provide valuable feedback in the idea developmental stage. If you are a sensing team member you can capitalize on your strength by bringing some discipline into the idea generation process by creating a structure to process information in a more clearer manner. You will be able to provide practical advice when evaluating ideas and can back it up with some detailed data.

By identifying your preferred mode you will see your own and the teams productivity increase. Either/or is not the only option, however you should make sure you understand which is your preferred and most commonly used mode of processing information.